Niagara Falls
Café/Restaurant has been part of the landscape since 1893 when a single
classroom was erected, the large wooden building was established in 1895.
The school is named, tongue in cheek, after the ‘other’ North American falls
by a surveyor with a sense of humour who could see the similarity between
the two.

The School supplied the
settlement with education for the sawmillers’ and farmers’ children. When
the mill closed the settlement dwindled. In 1972 the school was closed and
its last pupils were sent to Quarry Hills School, along with those of
Waikawa and Progress Valley Schools, which closed at the same time.

The school was then used
to accommodate the expanding number of people wishing to attend the
Presbyterian Church until it too closed, in 1991. Then it was an
intermittent dance hall and music room before Rae Cavanagh set up Boot Hill
Pottery here.

Rae and her husband Robin
were also talented musicians who belonged to the legendary Progress Valley
Possum Pickers. She potted in this idyllic setting until her death in 1999.

The
eating oasis in the Catlins was set up by Amanda Banhidi and Trevor Leonard
in 2001 on the 20th Anniversary of the Progress Valley Possum
Pickers. Between them they turned the old school building into a mecca of
local produce, arts and crafts. The executive secretary and diesel mechanic,
confessed to knowing nothing about the professional hospitality industry
when they opened the doors and just focused on creating foods they’d like to
eat themselves.

That
meant home grown vegetables and herbs and the best of Southland’s fresh
produce – with cakes, slices and breads all made on the premises.

Niagara
Falls Cafe became one of Southland’s most “discovered” eateries –
recommended by Lonely Planet, Rough Guide, New Zealand Driving Holidays,
Cuisine Magazine, AA Magazine, North and South as well as being a two time
runner up in Cafe Magazine’s Best Cafe in Southland.

Won over by the location
and the fresh-food ethos, in 2011 long-time darlings of the New Zealand
cycling scene James and Laura Fairweather took over the cafe in partnership
with Laura’s mother Sue Thompson and her brother Dale Thompson.

The only change they made
was the immediate introduction of bike tyres and puncture repair kits to the
Cafe Gift shop.

The keen cyclists have become a regular sight on Catlins
Roads, but none more so than Laura who turned the great outdoors in her
personal gym as she geared up for the 2012 Para-Olympics in London where she
won Gold, Silver and Bronze medals as pilot of a tandem cycling team with
Philippa Gray – just weeks before she and James married right here at the
cafe.